When you purchase a trademark, there is no requirement that you record the sale, but it sure is a good idea. Why? Take this example: Owner A sells a trademark (and the underlying goodwill) to buyer B. Buyer B never…
Please, lawyers, please, stop writing “X statute provides in pertinent part.” Several reasons. First,you’re probably not using it right, because you’re quoting the whole statute. Second, if you’re only quoting part of the statute, then your use of ellipses will…
I blogged about open-source solutions a bit ago, and it looks like the open-source / crowdsourcing / community-based design approach is being applied again. GE is soliciting ideas from the public for their next ad campaign. Another example of leveraging…
Once you’ve filed your federal trademark registration application, you’ve more or less cast it in stone. There are some things that you can change while the application is being processed, but generally, the Patent and Trademark Office is resistant to…
Steve O’Donnell, over at 3C Patent Law, has a nice, quick description of how a trademark owner can lose its rights through dilution. I’ve excerpted some of it here, but read the whole post for a better explanation: Consider this…
I’ve been getting a recurring question lately: “Will you sign this Non Disclosure Agreement before I tell you about the invention I want you to write a patent application for?” Sometimes, the question is phrased, “how much do you charge…
A business doesn’t necessarily own everything created by its workers. The question of ownership comes down to many factors, chief among them being the presence of an employment contract. Employees typically produce work that is owned by the business –…
Unfortunately, it isn’t easy to protect your photos once you’ve uploaded them to the web. Your ability to control how people use your images depends on a few things. If you’re posting them on a photo-sharing site like Flickr or…
Patently-O did the work, and I’m happy to reprint it. It’s no secret that getting a patent is a lengthy process: Current Patent Office estimates show that it has been taking, on average, between 1.95 and 3.98 years for the…
I’ve posted a basic description of the patenting process, from inventing to maintaining the patent. The video is a visual explanation of how an invention forms, how the patent application is prepared, filed, and processed, and what to do when…